| Artist |
| Avoid Kharma |
| Title |
| No Paradise |
| Format/Cat |
| CD Fear 031 |
| Label |
| Fear Section |
| Style |
| EBM |
| Date of review |
| 12th february 2009 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 8 |
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The seemingly endless line of electro bands coming out of Germany shows no signs of slowing down but, fortunately, a good number of them are still coming up with the goods. This quartet of David Kohnert, Thorsten Schufflitz, Jens Truckenbrodt & Malte Scharf is one of the latest &, despite being the latest in a long long line, have managed to come up with something pretty special. Their sound is an effective form of dark electro that, in the case of the punchier, offbeat tracks like 'Rebirth', resembles early Terminal Choice, which is perhaps not massively surprising when you consider that this was released by Chris Pohl's Fear Section label with Pohl himself using his marquee value & contributing additional vocals to 'The Hostage' which is one of the slower, darker tracks & a quite excellent one, too. And this is where AK come up trumps, the manner in which they infuse pretty much every track with a dark, sometimes haunting & melancholic air that is so effective that even the somewhat expressionless vocals that are a constant facet of the album do nothing to lessen the impact of such excellent numbers as 'The Worst Day', which is one of the standout numbers & 'We Have Flourished', where the melodics work on an almost subliminal level, adding the final touch to another superb track. Elsewhere 'Picture Book' provides the prerequisite attention-grabbing opener while 'Terrabyte' proves to be the most powerful track on the album, tipping its hat towards the older EBM styles before the chorus unleashes a sonic maelstrom with rhythmic cascades that hammer into your brain, all without losing site of the melancolic edge. In fact the only real exception to this is the second half of 'Love Circuit Switch' which is a much lighter affair than the rest of the album & is also a considerable contrast to the darker first half & one that I doubt many people would have seen coming. So while the band tread a fairly well-worn electro path, they're able to find plenty of seeds of inspiration along the way which makes this a constantly rewarding listen that may well appeal if you prefer a more melancolic sound over the harsher electro styles.
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